Nikolai Gorbunov
Nikolai Petrovich Gorbunov was a Soviet politician; at one time personal secretary to leader Vladimir Lenin.
Born in Krasnoye Selo, in Saint Petersburg, his parents were Pyotr Mikhailovich Gorbunov and Sofia Vasilievna Gorbunova. Pyotr was an honoured citizen who worked as an engineer and later as a director of a paper factory not far from Saint Petersburg. Sofia Vasilievna descended from the Pechatkin family and was a joint owner of the factory, of which her husband was a director. Both Gorbunov's parents owned a number of middle-sized houses. In 1911, they bought an estate of about in Yamburg. Pyotr Mikhailovich was a liberal who founded a school for the children of workers at his factory. His brother was the naturalist Grigoriy Petrovich Gorbunov.
Gorbunov was secretary of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR and wrote of the period immediately following the Bolshevik seizure of power:
On 17 July 1918, Gorbunov received a coded telegram from Alexander Beloborodov, the Chairman of the Presidium of the Ural Regional Soviet, regarding the shooting of the former Tsar Nicholas II and his family, with instructions to pass on the message to Yakov Sverdlov without delay. Sverdlov announced the tsar's death to the All-Russian Congress of Soviets the following day.
He served in his role as Administrator of Affairs of the Council of People's Commissars until 1930, continuing to serve under the Premierships of Alexei Rykov and Vyacheslav Molotov after the death of Lenin. In 1937 he was CEO of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
During the Great Purge, Gorbunov was indicted for espionage, sentenced to death and executed in 1938. He was rehabilitated in 1954.
